I'm in such a personal quandry and wondering if any of you guys feel this way too. I'm taking hydro (10/500's, 5-7 a day) and it is SOOOO good for the hip pain I suffer from. But my mind tells me that I should not stay on this (or any other) medication long term especially since there are so many other people with chronic conditions who are suffering more than I am. BUT (another "but") I just love how this drug feels. I'm calm, content and have no pain. It's like being wrapped in a warm, fleece blanket on a rainy fall day. So while I have a psychiatrist who is instructing me on how to taper/quit, I'm confused because I just don't want to. Anyone?

Im not tring to judge.Just letting you know how I feel.Im in pain and also felt as you do "warm & fuzy" However, it got out of hand for me...and now I think I have liver damage It DOESNT take long. And I have four kids...Just my opinion...If it can be controled, keep on keepn on. If not let it go. I feel and look terrable. Good luck.
Im not judgeing just telling you my side.
mom

I think everyone has felt that way at one time or another when they take pain medication. I have no idea how long you have been on them, but I can guarantee that you won't feel that way for too long. Tolerance will get the best of you and you will need to take more and more just to get that same feeling, until you have to keep taking them just so you won't get sick from W/D's.
If you can stay on a proper dose and NEVER go over what you are prescribed, then I don't see any problem with staying on the medication if it helps your pain. Just don't abuse the drug or you will be very sorry if you go even ONE pill over your dose!
Be very careful with this drug. It can ruin your life and your financial situation if your not careful.
I, personally don't take it anymore because of what you read above. I've been on suboxone because I started taking more than I should. Now, I take motrin for pain and deal with the pain control it can give me. It's not worth it to me and I've learned from it. Alot of people are very careful and use the drug properly. That was my intention at first. Then I needed more and more to relieve the pain and "other" things. I just always tell myself, "One is too many and a thousand is never enough"...
Take Care !!

I understand! I have chronic and severe daily passing of kidney stones and hurt dang near every day! I have one that has been lodeged for 2 months somewhere in my right side and the doctors went in once to find it and couldn't. Then they thought maybe it could be a gallstone so they sent me for tests but no it wasn't a gallstone either. Where and what is it? It is 1cm in size, appears in my CT scans to be in the ureter (R) but is it? I have not pressed this as I am scared now myself as to where and what it is! I do know my right side hurts terribly! I take 2 7.5mg a day and the throbbing never stops in my side but I don't want to take anymore meds! If I try not to take any it hurts intolerably! I am tired of hurting, tired of worrying about taking pain meds. You have to do what you have to do not to hurt and if it is something that can be fixed then have it taken care of! If your pain can not be resolved by medical intervention other than pain meds then you have to be able to function everyday so take your meds as prescribed. I see a specialist and they can't stop the massive and constant stones i have so I am having to continue with the pain meds until I am able to get a parathyroid surgical procedure but docs don't want to do it!

Hang in there we know how you feel as far as feeling you shouldn't be on any drug long term! The only concern I have is that you love the way it feels! I feel the opposite and hate the way it makes me feel which is usually nauseated and tired! Maybe you could get a check up on your condition and if you can not have pain or pain that you can't bear (there is a difference) then you might wanna taper down. The others are so right about tolerance and it only gets worse!



Good Luck and do some soul searching on this one!

i understand your feelings,however...this is serious business,you only have 1 liver,so,TRY to practice moderation.....have you tried half doses???

...at times,i'll just bite off a third,or half....just enough to keep the pain tolerable....i rarely actually take a whole pill at once,but you know your situation better than anybody....best of luck to you....tom

ahh, the wonderful feel of hydro. Till you realize it has to go. Till you have withdrawls from it. Till you crave it. Till it's gone and
you feel like you have no purpose anymore. You wonder what you are here for. Nothing is as it was. You are just
in a rut. Craving the warm fuzzy happy pill that takes over your life. It's not good to stay on because it is harmful to your
body. Because the addiction is real. Sometimes it can get so out of control. Because tolerance goes up, so without
more you lose the warm fuzzy until you take more. Then you need more, because you cant be out. And it can become
a horrible must have situation. You could end up spending waaaay more money that you have. You stress for the UPS
or Fedex guy to come. When your shipment is delayed its like someone killed you dog, or better off a family member.
The depression hurts, everything hurts. It's gone and you feel like crap, worse than crap. Some people call it the
middle class heroin. I dont know, im not middle class. I just got caught up in the game and its a hard fall. Some cant
just stop, they try but cant. They have to go to clinics for detox, methadone, subtox (sp) and it just carries on. I know
it is a good pain medication. It will kick pains butt. But long term, it can become a monster. The center of your life and
then the worst breakup you have ever had with anything in the world. Thats just my experience. Thought I should share.
Amy
PS I'm still in a rut. Depression has consumed me. I KNOW i will be free and clear, soon. I just wish that I had listened
to the voice inside my head when it said, "I feel good, do I really want to do this?" I did it and did it and did it...for a year
And I can't say I'm free and clear

Wow. How true, and how well put. I only wish I had the strength to withstand the pain without medicating it. Once I find a replacment for Vioxx, there may be some hope to switch over to a NSAID, for the duration. Thanks for sharing and the eyeopening reality check.

If you can stop taking this drug and not experience withdrawals at this point, I would encourage you to do so, or at least ration yourself so you take 2-3 days a week off if your pain is simply unbearable. Subtitute ultram combined with alleve if you can.

The reason I and so many others are encouraging you to do this is that we've all been where you are right now. Maybe you're not completely "hooked" yet, but because you know part of the reason you're taking it is for the "feel good" aspects of it, that's a dangerous sign. I, too, wish I'd heeded that little voice in my head the first few months I started taking it. I could go a few days here and there without it when my pain was light, and I was fine with that. But somewhere along the way, your tolerance will increase and its grip will hold you tighter & tighter until it nearly strangles you.

When people smoke their first cigarette, they never intend to become "addicted". And most of them aren't, for a year or two anyway--they can take them or leave them. But after using long enough, it becomes an addiction that some people say is as difficult to break as heroin. I speak from personal experience. Not just with the hydro, but with the smoking too. I remember during the first two years of college smoking only on weekends when out partying, and even then, if the others in the group weren't smokers, I could easily do without them. But repeated use led to addiction and boy was that a bear to quit. I think it was easier only because it's socially unnacceptable to smoke these days; it's very easy to hide your hydro use, and AT FIRST, it seems to enhance your life so much.

I'd just like to echo what some of the others have said, if you can strictly follow your dosage and not come to depend on it for an emotional lift on those days when everything seems to go wrong, you can probably handle it. But, and this is just my opinion, it sounds like you're heading down that slope but still have time to put on the brakes if you commit yourself to it. Imagine how much harder this would be to regulate/quit once you build up to 15,20 or even 25 a day. You know in your heart if this is starting to be a problem for you. I think that's why you wrote. Best of luck. You can reduce your usage if you really want to.

PLEASE, PLEASE LISTEN TO THE GOOD ADVICE THESE KNOWLEDGEABLE, CARING PEOPLE HAVE GIVEN YOU!!!
The "warm, fuzzy" is a road you will wish you had never taken!
Stop or at least moderate while you still can. Not to be a "doom-sayer" but you will look back on this cusp in a year and wonder at your foolishness if you don't heed their advice.
We care about you and want the best for you, a fellow human being in pain, in the truest sense of the word "fellowship".
Think deeply about the words of your fellow PW'ers.
Take care.
Lovemuffin

Thank you everyone for your kind and wise advice. If I gave the impression that I'm new to hydro I apologize. I've been taking it on and off for two years. I found flexeril so sedating, motrin didn't seem to kick the pain, and now there's the vioxx scare. So hydro has been reliable for me but like I said, I read so much here about the horrible w/ds and the power of the drug. It's so frustrating. The drug works so well, and yet it can cause such damage. I'm giving it a lot of thought and just wanted to say thanks.

Maybe try and taper down a bit and see how your body feels. If you feel like crap just tapering a little than you know that that blanket will not last forever and you need to get into a managable dose only when needed, you are taking a lot of APAP so liver function is definatly a concern.
If you can do the taper ok and find a dose smaller, say 3 pills per day you will be much better off and from their you can try and taper lower. Just my thoughts...

Okay, this is my 2nd post today, I need to go introduce myself, lol, but I have been reading all nite, and feel like I just have to speak, so forgive me! SO... real quick, I am Leigh, I am 30's female, Fibro ETC!!, been on/off hydro and pain therapy for 3 year now. I am a real advocate for pain management, and do not believe true intolerable pain should be something we 'live' with or 'deal' with. BUT, if you can do without it, I also think you should... until it's unbearable, and then you should take the meds. That is how I feel... that nobody should have to suffer this way without some relief, no matter how minute.

Thru my therapy, both shrink and medical, I have found that the 'calm' is due to hydro [often] treating, as well as the pain, an underlying anxiety or depression. Have you talked to a doctor about the calm effects, and perhaps using a more appropriate medication for that? I myself have decided not to open that bag of worms for now, the worms being a Benzo, because my pain is really, really bad, and I need to take the pain meds anyway, and don't really want to try and deal with another dependence right now. BUT... I know the few times I have taken Ativan I have had a much easier time reducing my hydro intake. I really believe I have anxiety issue, I just don't think I realized until the last year or so finally that it was NOT normal to feel that way!! I guess I thought everyone had that heart-racing-pounding freak out every once in a [weekly] while! Anyway, I just wanted to mention that as a possibility... that the hydro is helping with anxiety or depression, and that if you tried something more appropriate for those conditions, perhaps the hydro could be reserved for only intolerable pain. Just my 2 cents. Hope it's okay to have jumped in like this... I just though I might be able to help a tiny bit.
Nice to meet you all, Leigh